Three weeks before Americans vote in the 2012 presidential election, Pulitzer Prize-winning political columnist George F. Will will share his insights into the election and the country's political landscape at Whitworth University's annual President's Leadership Forum, sponsored by U.S. Bank, on Tuesday, Oct. 16 at 7:30 a.m. at the Spokane Convention Center. Sponsorship opportunities are available. Please RSVP by calling Nancy Rau at (509) 777-4250 or online at www.whitworth.edu/leadershipforum.
"My goal with the leadership forum is to bring timely and relevant experts to the Spokane community to discuss issues that are important for our region and those who lead it," Whitworth President Beck A. Taylor says. "George Will's appearance will provide up-to-the-minute commentary on the upcoming general election, and I'm sure people will appreciate his thoughtful and experienced perspectives. We are grateful to U.S. Bank for partnering with us to support this event."

The signature Whitworth President's Leadership Forum series brings to downtown Spokane speakers who represent a broad range of voices, perspectives and ideas. Whitworth faculty and staff are confident that Christian worldviews and the ideas of Christian thinkers are sharpened by rigorous and open intellectual inquiry and by engagement with the broadest spectrum of thought. This confidence motivates Whitworth to lead the way in inviting speakers to Spokane who can help our community engage in critical and careful thinking, civil discourse and effective action.

George Will is one of America's most widely read columnists. His newspaper column has been syndicated by The Washington Post since 1974, and it appears twice weekly in roughly 400 newspapers in the U.S. and Europe. In 1976, Will became a regular contributing editor of Newsweek magazine, for which he writes a bimonthly essay. Eight collections of his Newsweek and Washington Post columns have been published, the most recent being One Man's America. In 1977, he won a Pulitzer Prize for commentary for his newspaper columns. In 1990, he published Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball, which topped The New York Times' best-seller list for two months and was most recently reissued in 2010 as a 20th anniversary special edition with a new introduction. In 1998, Scribner published Bunts: Curt Flood, Camden Yards, Pete Rose and Other Reflections on Baseball, a best-selling collection of new and previously published baseball columns by Will. Will also was a member of Major League Baseball's Blue Ribbon Panel, examining baseball economics.

In 1981, Will became a founding panel member on ABC television's This Week. Will was born in Champaign, Ill., and educated at Trinity College, in Hartford, Conn., Oxford University and Princeton University, where he earned his Ph.D. He has taught political philosophy at Michigan State University, the University of Toronto and Harvard University. Will served as a staff member in the United States Senate from 1970 to 1972. From 1973 through 1976, he was the Washington editor of National Review magazine. Today, Will lives and works in Washington, D.C.

The President's Leadership Forum is led by Beck Taylor, who became the 18th president of Whitworth University in July 2010. Taylor came to Whitworth after serving as dean and professor of economics for the Brock School of Business at Samford University, in Birmingham, Ala., where he helped establish an entrepreneurship program that was recognized in 2010 as the nation's top emerging program by the U.S. Association for Small Business & Entrepreneurship. Since arriving at Whitworth, Taylor has led the university in developing a 10-year strategic plan, Whitworth 2021: Courage at the Crossroads, which calls for expanding student opportunities for experiential learning, intercultural engagement, and post-graduate preparation while continuing to elevate Whitworth's standing as one of the finest Christian liberal arts universities in the country. He also has opened new channels of communication with students, alumni and friends of the university and has strengthened connections with business, community and legislative leaders in the region.

Located in Spokane, Wash., Whitworth is a private liberal arts university affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA). The university, which has an enrollment of nearly 3,000 students, offers 60 undergraduate and graduate degree programs.